Very interesting article posted
Here
Seems like satellite radio is finding itself in an end-of-year sales rut.
As an owner of XM radio and one who often keeps tabs on Sirius
through friends, I am not as satisfied with satellite radio as I
once was.
While nobody can argue that satellite radio offers a wide range
of program choices that will satisfy any purchaser, the overall
sound quality of satellite radio has gotten so bad that I tend to
favor listening to CDs during my daily commute.
The only reason I listen to XM these days is for Opie and Anthony
and to keep on top of new music that I ultimately download and
burn off the Internet because the 320kbps quality is so much better
than what XM broadcasts at (which is approx. 192kbps or less).
Even the sonics of FM radio sounds equal to or better than satellite
radio. The only thing stopping me from sticking with FM is of course,
the commercials.
Unfortunately, the complaints I have are overshadowed by the
majority of subscribers who seem to care less about the quality
of audio that emanates from their tiny speakers.
Of course, this is an opinion that has been discussed in a prior
thread posted within this forum area. I just tend to agree with
the referenced article that many people still have not found a
reason to migrate over to a subscription based radio service for
obvious reasons.
In a way, I'm hoping on an eventual merger. Though I dread the
fact that Sirius would control music programming, the upside would
be the combined bandwidth that would enable CD-quality music on
every channel. Satellite radio could finally promote itself as a service
offering the best digital content and with sound quality that rivals HD-Radio.